■ Mixed messages on the reopening of schools created a political problem for President Joe Biden.

Republicans pounce on varying messages about reopening

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is in a political firestorm over how and when to get more schools open amid the coronavirus pandemic, with Republicans seizing on confusion surrounding Biden’s goal to reopen a majority of schools within his first 100 days to paint the president as beholden to teachers’ unions at the expense of American families.

His administration in recent weeks has sent muddled and at times contradictory messages about Biden’s goal.

On Tuesday night, the president said his 100-day goal was to have most elementary schools open five days a week, seeming to conflict with his own press secretary, who had said last week that schools would be considered “open” if they held in-person classes even one day a week.

Biden’s aides dismiss the controversy as a flareup that will disappear once the coronavirus is better under control and more school districts reopen, pointing to recent polls suggesting the public so far believes Biden is doing a good job in handling the issue.

Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association, said teachers are willing to go back to in-person learning only if Biden’s proposed American Rescue Plan “is passed, only if the dollars get to the school districts in time for them to be able to do the work that they need to do in terms of spacing, in terms of sanitizing, and only if we get the majority of our teachers vaccinated.”

“It’s possible. But at this stage, at this point, it’s not probable,” he said.

American Federation of Teachers’ President Randi Weingarten had an even gloomier outlook, declaring that until the nation reaches herd immunity through widespread vaccinations, “we’re not going to be at normal.”

This leaves Biden caught between teachers’ unions skeptical of his expanded goal on reopening and critics who say just one day of classroom time a week for a majority of schools is far too little. Data from Burbio, a service that tracks school opening plans, recently reported that 66 percent of K-12 students already are learning in-person to some degree.

Republicans have been pointing to data suggesting that many schools are safe to open now and charging that the Biden administration is siding with teachers’ unions over science and the needs of American families.

“An administration that puts facts and science first would be conducting a full-court press to open schools,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY.

Republican strategist Rory Cooper said the issue is particularly relevant in “collar counties around major urban areas.” He and other parents are “enraged with the state of schooling right now.”

Children face “mental health issues, academic issues, physical and social issues. And the priority seems to be on the adults who worked in the school system, rather than the children who are supposed to benefit from it,” Cooper said.